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Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Oh my! The Broody Mama Drama team!! So these crazy hens are driving me nuts. Petunia, one of my 1-year-old Buff Orpingtons decided to go broody. It means she wanted to sit and hatch eggs. I had been waiting for someone to go broody so I could hatch a few more homegrown chicks. I was excited when she actually got serious about sitting. The problem is that broodiness does tend to be contagious. When one hen starts sitting you may soon have a rebellion on your hands with more wanting to sit. I was ok when the second hen, another young mom, my 1-year-old Easter Egger decided she would sit too.

Fast forward to today. Besides all the fighting, broken eggs, and nest swapping, I now have two completely new hens sitting. Petunia, the original Buff that was sitting got somehow ousted by Sassy, one of my other Buffs (I have 5 total). Sassy hatched 3 clutches for me last year. She is a sittin' mamma! The original Easter Egger, Nugget, is still sitting and now Bertha, my two-year-old Australorp has decided she wants to sit. It's crazy. At any given time they are swapping nests and letting other hens add to the egg stash. Sneaky little things.

I have all the hatching eggs marked so I know which ones to take away each day that are the freshly laid ones for the day. The first hatch day is this Friday, only 2 days away! We should have some new chicks by Sat if my days are right and the eggs were viable. I tried to candle them but I need a lot of work in that area! I couldn't tell if they were good or not.

The drama continues and it will be interesting come Friday to see what we might have. Sure hope we get some new fluffy butts and don't get overtaken with cockerels either!!

Thursday, May 24, 2018

We've been busy with quite a few reviews lately but it's hard to pass up the opportunity to review a curriculum that can meet your children where they are at and help them along. Home School Navigator Reading and Language Arts Curriculum by Home School Navigator is a comprehensive curriculum for your language arts needs in grades K - 5. It is even recommended for upper grades if you have struggling learners who need to fill in some gaps. It is available as an annual digital subscription so internet access is necessary.

Little Bug working on one of her worksheets

I received a one-year subscription for my K5 and 8th-grade children. My 8th grader is a struggling learner and battles mild dyslexia and dysgraphia so I was hoping to use the writing aspects of the program for him. I really LOVE that there are actually NO grade levels! That's right. The levels are color-coded to skill level. You can check out their scope and sequence to see what level your child might use.

Another great thing about this reading success curriculum is that you have your schedule laid out for you. The included teaching guides show you what is covered each month and then it is broken down by week and day. There is even a page that shows what handouts are needed each week at whatever level you are currently using. The schedule includes a materials list for each day. Each daily teaching guide has activities that include, for example, a read aloud, literature/composition, writing, grammar, phonics/word study/vocabulary, print work, and independent reading. There are other activities depending on the level you are at and what day you are completing. You do not have to complete all the activities. That is the great thing about this curriculum. They lay out the work and you can choose to complete all of it or just some of it. There are even "catch up" days included throughout the program because we all know that "life" happens! Their heart is to create an atmosphere of lifelong learning in our children.

Yearly schedule

I absolutely LOVE this from their blog:

4 . Don’t stress the small stuff! If the child has to concentrate very hard with the correct way to hold a pencil as in the case where the child has been diagnosed with ADHD, certain sensory disorders, or if the child is dyslexic, don’t force the issue! Let’s face it, when most kids go off into the “real world” they are not likely to grab a pencil and start jotting down their memoir. Allow them to use a computer and word process their work or allow them to use voice-to-text software for the rough draft portion of writing. This is NOT cheating! This is helping the child find his or her voice in the form of written text.

1. Encourage! Writing does not have to be a threatening, grammar drilling, diagramming nightmare. Try to establish it into your daily routine. Keep it simple. Try unjournaling. What is unjournaling, you might ask? It is a series of writing prompts that are not threatening, but instead, require creativity and perhaps some artwork. These short prompts should not take more than 10 minutes to implement and are generally more engaging for the child. They invite the child’s response.

Sample portion of lesson links from RED level

Sample link from red level with links to online book and video for the day

A typical day for Little Bug might go something like this:

read a read aloud book like "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"

watch a video of the above book being read to you (all links included in curriculum)

work on "writer's notebook" (since Bug is not writing sentences yet she just draws pictures) - there is also a nice intro video on this and how to use it.

work on phonics like finding objects around the house that begin with certain letter sounds

practice writing her name (she already knows how to do this but it helps her with her writing practice too)

work on nursery rhyme extension (an extra activity where she watched a video on "Little Miss Muffet" and then worked on a handout where we cut out sentences from the rhyme and she had to put the sentences back in order)

She is enjoying the activities and it doesn't seem like school to her. She loves when she gets to cut and paste and of course watching videos is always fun. It really helps that she just plain loves books so language arts sits well with her. As you progress through your assignments you can simply mark them as completed or use the option to upload (64 Mb max) them to a private server (included in your subscription) so you can download them at the end of the year as your portfolio of completed work for record keeping purposes. I did not upload our assignments, I simply marked them as being completed.

Little Bug on cut and paste with like sounds

I used the Indigo level with my 8th-grade son to try to pick up some skills he was lacking in or basically needed practice with. Writing is always such a struggle for him so we focused on that and working on the word roots to help him with his vocabulary. Even though he has mild dyslexia, he reads just fine now (though it wasn't always like that!). For the reading portion of his level, there was a list of books needed for the month which is nice if you need to find the book or check it out from your local library. Of course these days so many books are available to read for free on the internet. I am really happy with the word root and vocabulary portions that we are using for him. We have done some of the reading comprehension with him since this is also a skill he needs to work on.

Cut and paste from Indigo level when learning root word "PED"

The basic flow of work between levels (Red for Bug and Indigo for 8th grader) is about the same. They both include read aloud, literature/comprehension, and writing/grammar. Bug's red level focuses on phonics while the indigo level works more on formal grammar, root word, and vocabulary work. It also introduces computer skills. They have a really cool tool called Finding "Just Right" Books that helps you to select just the right book for your child. One that is not too easy or too hard but just the right level of challenge.

Finding "Just Right" books

The only challenge we had was that some of the videos that were recorded were hard to hear, but they have been replacing them with updated videos. There is also a LOT of printing involved, but you can also choose not to print everything. Many activities can just be completed from the computer screen. The creators of the program are always open to improving the program to meet the needs of homeschoolers and I really like that. They were also always very receptive to any concerns or suggestions we had as reviewers. Home School Navigator Reading and Language Arts Curriculumis definitely worth checking out and considering if you are looking for a fairly well-rounded language arts program that covers a lot of ground. I would recommend it especially if you are wanting to fill in any missing gaps.

You can connect with Home School Navigator on FACEBOOK, PINTEREST, and INSTAGRAM.Another aspect of the program that we didn't use was the Interactive Notebooks. Rather than answering a ton of boring questions about a book they are interactive in that your student will cut out shapes and paste flaps down and write answers in underneath, or draw, or cut out tabs and sort the answer out. This alone is a good reason to be sure to check out the reviews from my fellow Crew members to learn what they have to say about this program.

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

I've said it so many times lately, but we just LOVE books! Little Bug can't get enough of them so of course, we said "YES" to the chance to review T is for Tree: A Bible ABC from Reformed Free Publishing Association. I received a 32-page hardback copy of the book. It is recommended for ages 3-6 and I think this is a good suggestion. My K5 Little Bug really liked it. The pages are thick, slightly glossy and very colorful and nice quality.

This is an ABC book that takes a page for each letter of the alphabet to introduce a word, a nice rhyme, and an appropriate scripture from the King James Bible version. I really liked the set up of this book. It has the key elements I love to have in my early education readers. The littles get to learn their alphabet while increasing their vocabulary, learning rhymes, and getting a good dose of scripture.

Each page has a letter, vocabulary word, rhyme, and scripture

Of course, Little Bug already knows her alphabet but she enjoyed listening to the rhymes and she is really picking up on the scriptures. She has started recognizing some of them even from other books she reads and our bible studies. The artwork is catchy and helps to keep her attention on the page and listening. It's another win and addition to her nighttime bible reading.

We read the book together and I think her favorite page is S for Stars. She has always been fascinated with the sky and stars. I can't say enough how I appreciate that scripture is incorporated into each page. This is just a delightful book that is a perfect Christian children's ABC book that not only introduces the alphabet but also God's word. The addition of the rhyming is a bonus.

Sample Page

I love the publisher's desire to instill God's word and truths into our little ones. They believe that we are saved through faith alone and that it is by God's grace that we are granted salvation (not by our works). The author, Connie L. Meyer, is also the illustrator of her book. The illustrations are wonderful throughout the entire book. She is a 1982 graduate of Calvin College and attends Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Michigan. She has written many other Christian children's books and articles and even a three-volume Christian art curriculum series.

Since Little Bug already knows her ABCs we just read this like a book. I can see just reading a page a day if you have littles that need to learn their letters. Even reading a page a week while you work on the "letter of the week" would be a nice option. I will probably use this more this fall with Little Bug when we work on more language arts and rhyming and of course as a great addition to our bible studies and studying the word.

Monday, May 21, 2018

I am so behind on garden updates! We upgraded this year and have been putting in some composite beds. I found some REALLY nice deals online. The wood from the old beds was rotting pretty badly, We decided to combine several 4' X 4' beds to eliminate a lot of extra aisle space and get more planting space. One bed is 4' X 20'. We really like that one.

As we continue to try to improve things we also realized that my trellises now need to go back to the middle of the bed. Especially in the 20' bed! Otherwise, you cannot reach around it well enough to finish planting or taking care of the section it is in. I think we will also upgrade that to cattle panel next year.

The garden is coming along pretty well although I do not have everything planted yet! I still have some seeds to get in so hopefully, that will happen this week. I will probably add at least 2 more installments to this series to update the garden happenings. In the above picture, we had just installed the new beds, filled them with nice rich chicken poop compost, and weeded most of the beds.

What are your garden plans this year? Do you have everything planted yet?

Thursday, May 17, 2018

MESSYLEARNING FOR PRESCHOOLERS AND KINDERGARTNERS by PandaParents is our newest review and Little Bug approves. I received the first 3 months of digital copies of their program and should be receiving 3 more months soon. The files included digital reading books, videos, and digital workbooks. This is a monthly digital subscription service so you would get one month at a time. Each month there is a story topic and for each month you have a reading book, a video that supports that book, and a workbook that reviews the story and has LOTS of activities to work on throughout the month.

M.E.S.S.Y.Learning is an acronym for:

Mixed subjects and activities for integrative learning

Engaging activities and questions that challenge brains

Simple 1-2-3 steps: READ, WATCH, DO

Smart designs for creative learning

Yeah, a new way to promote early brain growth!

I was able to download the files with no problem. I have a wonderful, very economical, color printer that I get ink for very cheaply so I was able to print off the reading book (only 50 pages - 25 duplexed- for the first month) and the workbook (only 40 pages, 20 duplexed). They are both PDF files so you could easily just read them on your computer and only print necessary pages from the workbook for assignments. Technically all pages in the workbook need to be printed but there are some you can adapt and just have child answer on screen.

It is recommended that you read the story, watch the video, then complete a page or two in the workbook (they recommend you use it 2-3 times per week for 30 minutes at a time). We followed the suggestions and worked on ours about 2 - 3 days per week for about 30 minutes or so. We, of course, reread the book several times and watched the videos multiple times. Repetition is key at this stage of learning. Some of the material was very much PreK oriented but Little Bug still enjoyed working on her pages. I liked the reinforcement she was getting.

Sample book page

The first month we chose to work on has a book with two parts and two videos (part 1 and part 2). The Part 1 video was approximately 10 minutes long and Part 2 was approximately 38 minutes. The first part of the book was A Jolly Jingling Journey and if you guessed it was based on the letter J, you would be correct! The letters R and F are also covered. The story opens with introducing Davy Rainbow and his dogs Dahu and Magnus. In his dream, they travel to the North Pole and meet Jet, a husky dog. They learn about the letter J and patterns. They play a game of "find me" to find Santa. The second part of the book was An Epic Journey. Davy and his gang help Santa find a missing reindeer. We learned about the migration of reindeer. Davy and Santa use clues to find the reindeer. They use Jet and his friends to pull the sleigh to go look for them. All through the story the letter "J" and "J" words are being used. We counted the reindeer with lighted collars. The story ends with Davy waking up on Christmas morning. At the end of the book, there is an Extra Credit page that has even more activities with an answer key.

Extra Credit page

In the video, Part 1, we learn about the Special Guest Star letter "J" and juggling. Both upper and lowercase letters are shown. I also really liked how they subtly introduced foreign language in a couple of places. It is cute and whimsical and Little Bug got a kick out of it. Little Bug is 5 years old and I have done a lot of Kindergarten work with her this past year but we will also repeat Kindergarten next year. The Part 2 video is a movie version of the book with some extra activities. It is a wonderful reinforcement to the storybook.

Sample video clips

The third part of this curriculum is the workbook that further reinforces themes from the story and this is where your child gets to really engage in various activities including cutting, pasting, matching, coloring, counting, and writing (including tracing). Activities teach your child to problem solve and learn about sequencing. They will learn about nature and shapes, feelings and emotions.

Workbook cover

Sample workbook page

Little Bug working on her workbook page

Sticker page can be printed on sticker label paper or just cut out and glued on page (which is what we did)

There really is a lot to this curriculum and when you look at it as a whole and work through the activities you can see how engaged your child becomes. It is a fun curriculum that is just perfect for the PreK age group. It will go a long way to preparing them for kindergarten. With there just being a book per month I'm not sure this could be a stand alone program (I can't see if they cover all 26 letters of the alphabet), but definitely a great supplemental one. If the goal is for it to be a stand alone program and all 26 letters will be covered then It would probably work just fine. I looked at the other two books we received. Mommy's Baby covers the letters P, T, K, and B and animals and shapes. The video for Mommy's Baby is only about 5 minutes long. The third book I received, Scotty Skunk Hears a Scary Sound, covers the letters S and H. It also covers nature and seasons.

I think I would recommend MESSYLEARNING FOR PRESCHOOLERS AND KINDERGARTNERS for Preschool aged children that have not had experience with their letters and numbers. It is a wonderful introduction to more formal learning and will give them many skills they need to be Kindergarten ready. Little Bug is really enjoying it even though she already knows her letters and numbers. There are still some skills she needs to work on that this curriculum covers.

You can connect with PandaParents on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, and INSTAGRAM. Currently, they have digital subscriptions available. If you want printed books they have options for that but they will only fulfill those once they receive 200 orders or more. Just check their website out for more details on all the options available for purchase. Of course, your best deal is the monthly digital subscription.

Please also be sure to check out the other reviews to see what fellow Crew members have to say.

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

I AM "THAT MOM." I protect my kids sometimes to the verge of too much. Or, can there really be a "too much" in today's society. Each generation seems to say, "It just wasn't like that in MY generation." With the dangers of today's technology, I was more than happy to have a chance to review Kids Email Safe Email for Kids by Kids Email.

She thinks it's pretty cool to have her own email!

We received a free 1-year subscription for up to 6 kids. This is a digital product so you, of course, must have internet access to use this. It is very customizable. It was easy to sign up for the account and add the kids in. You basically have a parent account with a dashboard to customize all of your settings and set up accounts for each child. I even chose the more "adult" teen version for my 14 year old son. The extension on his email is kmail instead of kidsemail and he has the extra option to customize his folders in his inbox. Now my kids can communicate safely with our family members and those I choose to allow. Don't worry, there is also an option to review all ingoing and outgoing mail in your kids email account.

Customized templates

Teen version has a little different interface that also allows for custom organizing of folders

I just don't think you can be "too safe" with what is out there today in cyberspace. It is too easy for strangers to connect with our kids. Did you even know that a lot of "innocent" game apps allow your kids to communicate with strangers? I have the tablets for my kids on lockdown (or so I thought) because I just don't trust what is out there. My son was telling me a story one day and I said, "who were you talking to and how?!" He said through his game!! I said, "well we will just fix that," much to his dismay until I explained to him that he really has no idea who this person claims to be. I even have a net nanny to filter stuff out, but the "chat" feature from an app got missed. Mind you this was one of his game apps, not anything like facebook or musically. I just didn't realize that they have "chat site" options in these games that allow them to play with others over the internet. I have tried to not allow those games in, but this one got missed.

Kids Email Safe Email for Kids seemed the perfect solution for us. I have not allowed him to have email, but now he can and I can rest easy. It allows you to only allow contacts you choose or approve of if you want (or you can allow it to work like regular email with no restrictions except their safe filter). There are NO ads! Yup, no worries on crazy images or inappropriate advertisements your kids might accidentally see. This alone is worth a lot to me! Especially with a teenage son. Other features include:

email filters that can not just block certain people or allow all emails, but also any attachments, pictures, or links

time of day restrictions or even "grounding" for a period of time

contact manager that allows you to have a list of approved contacts

spam filter (no spam!!)

mail queue that allows you to review emails going in and/or out if you choose

custom mailbox that your child can organize (teen version) and customize their own inbox (some cute templates are available).

There are so many customizations available and it really does work to block unwanted content. It also blocks any offensive words. The activity log not only shows you when they logged in and out but also when they try to access it when not allowed. Customizing it is fun for the kids and really makes it "their" email. I love that they can now safely communicate with our relatives that do not live locally.

For my K5 daughter, there is a READ IT feature that actually reads her email to her! What a great thing while she is learning to read right now. I love it! Some other really fun features include the option for them to DRAW a picture in the email (on the tablet and mobile devices) and send it. They can also send their own attachments if you allow that.

Little Bug LOVES the drawing feature!!

Another bonus for us is that it is also available as a Kindle app! I love that! I chose Kindles for my kids because of the safety features, now they have kid friendlyemailto go with it. The dashboard does look different on your mobile devices and tablets as compared to the computer or laptop, but just as user-friendly. If your kids have mobile phones, no problem, they have the apps available.

The interface is a little different on the Kindle tablet

If I can't convince you how awesome this is then I have even more good news. You can try this out for FREE using their 30 day trial. You don't even need a credit card or anything to sign up. Just register and you can try it out for 30 days with nothing more to do unless you choose to continue your subscription. How cool is that?!

If you choose to continue they have 2 options and the annual option is by far the best. If you choose annual it is only $38.95 for the year (approx $2.99/mth because you get 1 free month extra) and 6 email accounts. If you choose monthly it will be billed at $4.95/mth and you only get 4 email accounts.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Aaaaannnnd. . . we have a broody mom! I have been asking my steadfast Buff Orpington broody moms when they were gonna sit some eggs for me. They of course just looked at me like I was crazy. I do have one new Orpington that has pretended to want to sit, so she might in the near future.

But, kind of out of the blue, one of my young Easter Egger hens has decided she wants to hatch some babies!! She has been very protective of the eggs when I collect them and has been screaming at me, but I just kept ignoring her. On Saturday I decided to leave a couple eggs under her to see what she would do. One day and night later and she was still sitting! I am excited.

You know the saying, "don't count your eggs before they are hatched?" Well, that is because broody moms can be fickle. Especially new moms!! The eggs must incubate for 21 days to hatch. If at any time she decides to stop sitting on those eggs, they will not hatch. They need her warm body to incubate them and her skills to keep them turned.

Hoping we hatch out some pullets!! Roosters will surely be food on the table as we already have too many now. Broodiness can be catching so perhaps one of the other moms will decide to sit soon too.

Friday, May 11, 2018

We can never get our hands on enough books when it comes to Little Bug. As I've said before, she just LOVES books! We recently had the opportunity to review three books by Kayla Jarmon that included A Boy and His Dog, Don't Forget Me, and Dying Is Part of This World. We received links to preview the books but they are all available in paperback on Amazon.

A Boy and His Dog is a sweet story of a fun-filled day with a boy and his dog. They go on many adventures. Even though this book is perfect for Little Bug it really reminded me of my son and his dog Ruby. We have two dogs, one geriatric older mutt, Esther, and my son's Australian Shepherd, Ruby, who will be 2 years old in about a week. Ruby is definitely Sam's sidekick and so resonates with this story.

The boy and his dog start their day together, eat together, and go exploring together. They play together, eat snacks together, and chase squirrels. They get dirty and have to take baths and then snuggle down for the night. They sleep and then wake up and start all over again!

The story shows the love a dog has for its owner and the love an owner returns (in this case the little boy) to his pet. It's a great read aloud and the illustrations are cute and whimsical. Get this 42-page book to see the many adventures they go on. Little Bug really enjoyed this book and it will also serve as a nice early reader book for her in the near future.

Don't Forget Me is the first book in her Discussion Book series. It's a conversation between God and an unborn baby in the womb. All proceeds from this book go towards ministries for "God's Kingdom purposes." The book begins showing the growing baby in the womb and God interacting with it. God assures the baby He is there, always. The baby wonders what he is experiencing and God lets him know it's his mother and what she is doing. He is also introduced to his dad and enjoys when they read the bible to him.

Throughout the whole story, God is always assuring the baby that He is there. It is a precious story about the journey of a fetus growing and being born. I really like the scripture references at the end. At 70 pages it is a quick read and a great conversation starter with your young children about how God is always with you.

Dying Is Part of This World is the second book in her Discussion Book series. It's a story about a girl who is worried about her mother dying. The daughter had seen something on the news while visiting with her grandfather and it got her thinking about death.

This 58-page book consists of 7 very short chapters. The daughter shares how sad she would be to be separated from her mom, but her mom reassures her how Jesus is in heaven and that when we get there we don't think about what we left because of what joy there is to be with Jesus. Chapter 5 is great about "Help When Losing Someone." And Chapter 6 about "The Second Death" does a great job talking about judgment day and eternal thinking.

There are scripture references and discussion questions at the end of every chapter. I think this book is better for grade school age children and the discussion questions are such wonderful conversation starters.

This is a very precious book. Little Bug is going through some intense emotions these days so I am holding off on going over this book with her right now. My mom passed away almost 2 years ago and this book would be just so perfect for us to discuss together. Sometime in the near future, I'm sure we will do just that!

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About Me

I am a wife, mother, teacher, and believer in Jesus, my Savior. I homeschool my son and daughter. Our family moved to a 5-acre plot of land in the late summer of 2007 and we enjoy learning to homestead a little at a time. We have a long way to go but are rejoicing in the journey.